This invention is a dual purpose floor cleaning apparatus and method of use. The apparatus is dual purpose because it can clean carpeted floors and hard surfaced floors, such as grouted tile. The invention also includes a removable tool that can be attached to a conventional carpet extractor to allow the apparatus to clean hard surfaced floors in addition to carpeted floors. The tool may also be sold as an aftermarket device for existing carpet extractors.
Conventional carpet extractors such as the Bext extractors sold by Clarke include a body, a cleaning wand that the operator moves back and forth over the carpeted floor and conduits connecting the wand to the body. Unfortunately, these extractors do not have a brush on the wand, so they are unsuitable for hard surfaced floors including grouted tile. Attached in the Information Disclosure Statement, and incorporated herein by reference, are an Operator's Manual and a Parts and Service Manual for these Bext carpet extractors sold by Clarke/ALTO.
One solution to this problem is to buy a second wand with a brush and squeegee to clean hard surfaced floors. However, it is inconvenient for the operator to carry around two wands and additional capital costs are incurred.
Another solution to this problem is a “flipper” apparatus as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,893,375 assigned to Hako Minuteman, Inc., one of the many competitors in the floor cleaning business. This “flipper” has a rotatable cleaning head with a brush on one side and a vacuum pickup on the opposite side. To clean carpeted floors, the vacuum pickup is in contact with the floor surface. To clean hard surfaced floors, the cleaning head is rotated 180° so the brush is in contact with the floor surface. After scrubbing, the cleaning head is again rotated 180° so the dirty solution may be vacuumed from the floor surface.
There is still a need for a better dual purpose apparatus that can clean both carpeted and hard surfaced floors.